Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / A laboratory information management system (LIMS) is central to the informatics infrastructure
that underlies biobanking activities. To date, a wide range of commercial and open
source LIMS are available. The decision to opt for one LIMS over another is often influenced
by the needs of the biobank clients and researchers, as well as available financial resources.
However, to find a LIMS that incorporates all possible requirements of a biobank may often
be a complicated endeavour. The need to implement biobank standard operation procedures
as well as stimulate the use of standards for biobank data representation motivated the development
of Baobab LIMS, an open source LIMS for Biobanking. Baobab LIMS comprises
modules for biospecimen kit assembly, shipping of biospecimen kits, storage management,
analysis requests, reporting, and invoicing. Baobab LIMS is based on the Plone web-content
management framework, a server-client-based system, whereby the end user is able to access
the system securely through the internet on a standard web browser, thereby eliminating the
need for standalone installations on all machines.
The Baobab LIMS components were tested and evaluated in three human biobanks. The
testing of the LIMS modules aided in the mapping of the biobanks requirements to the
LIMS functionalities, and furthermore, it helped to reveal new user suggestions, such as
the enhancement of the online documentation. The user suggestions are demonstrated to
be important for both LIMS strengthen and biobank sustainability. Ultimately, the practical LIMS evaluations showed the ability of Boabab LIMS to be used in the management of
human biobanks operations of relatively different biobanking workflows.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uwc/oai:etd.uwc.ac.za:11394/6773 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Bendou, Hocine |
| Contributors | Christoffels, Alan |
| Publisher | University of the Western Cape |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | University of the Western Cape |
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